Zimbabweans have been forced to make use of the United States dollars in the absence of the new ZIG currency.
Zimbabwe’s informal traders who account for about 75% of all employment in the nation have stopped accepting the ZIMdollar also known as RTGS dollar fearing its value has declined.
The new ZIG currency which was supposed to be effective from April 8 was delayed until April 30th, leaving the US Dollar, dominating the market.
“When you introduce new measures, you will be hoping that you will bring stability and lower inflation but you need to be disciplined and sincere about the process,” economist Happy Zengeni explained.
“The ordinary Zimbabwean does not have the capacity to inject liquidity into the economy but capacity rests with the authorities so they need to be sincere about it.”
Before the announcement of the launch of the new gold-backed currency, ZIG, the Zim dollar was trading at 28,720 to 1 US dollar.
Ordinary Zimbabweans like street vendor Mildred Mapfumo are dejected:
“I sell fruits for a living and I had been saving the RTGs Dollar for a while in order to pay tuition for my children but now we woke up to the news that our money is no longer valuable, I don’t even know how I will navigate this.”
Zimbabwe is not new to currency change, we have seen the RTGs dollar being rolled and eventually being phased out and before that was the bearers’ cheques however, Zimbabweans are really worried about the extent to which this new ZiG, will be able to curb inflation that has been going on in the country.
